Yohan Blake, 2011 World Championships, Daegu 100 meters, photo by PhotoRun.net

STAR SPRINTERS STARTING ON
TUESDAY

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican Racers TC superstars Usain
Bolt and Yohan Blake are starting their preparation towards Olympic Games in London on Tuesday. That
was confirmed by their agents and also world record holder Bolt mentioned it on
his twitter. Jamaican Championships which will serve as olympic trials are
expected to be held during weekend of June 23-24 (not confirmed yet). The
Jamaica Invitational meet in Kingston
as IAAF World Challenge event is planned for May 5 next year. That is one week
earlier that in the past and the clash with Samsung Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar
(May 11) will be avoided.

FAST SPRINTER FROM OMAN

MANAMA (BRN, Oct 17): Oman´s sprinter Barakat
Al-Harthi won the 100 m
during first day of athletics at the first Gulf Countries Games at the Khalifa
City Stadium of Manama. He clocked new national record 10.17 (+1.8) after being
fast also in the first round 10.25 (+1.8) what was first NR of the day for him.
Second Qatar´s talent Femi Ogunode achieved 10.25. Reigning Asian Games winenr
Mahboob Hasan won for the host country the 10 000 m in 28:37.91.
Another sprint gold for Oman
when Ahmed Al-Merjabi was the best in the 400 m (46.3, hand timed). In the 110 m hurdles Saudi Arabian
favorite Ahmed Al-Moualed won in 13.81 (+1.5) ahead of 2008 world junior
semifinalist Abdulaziz Al-Mandeel from Kuweit (13.87).

BELGIAN RELAY TO ICELAND

BRUSSELS (BEL) : The Belgian successful 4x400m team is
set to leave for a team-building event to Iceland. The team, which includes
the Borlée twins, will conquer an ice mountain during a four day trip in which
none of the members will have access to his phone, internet or other ways of
communication. Coach Jacques Borlée believes the trip will help build a real
team out of individual athletes. He also informed after recieving a Coaching
award in Arona last weekend that his sons are planning for European
Championships in Helsinki
to compete in the relay. Individual starts at 400 m are then planned for Olympic
Games. Borlee wins are planning after Iceland
adventure to be in Lanzarote on November 6-20, South
Africa Dec 20-Jan 31 and USA Apr 15 until May 20. Belgium
is planning to run relay at Penn Relays next April.

HARTING SURGERY NOT YET

BERLIN (GER): World discus champion Robert Harting
has not been able to receive his surgery to the left knee. The surgery will be
postponed to a later date reports leichtathletik.de.

UKA SUPPORT PROGRAMME

LONDON (GBR): After several weeks of consideration UK
Athletics announced the names of the athletes who will be supported on the road
to the home Olympics next year on the domestic governing body’s Lottery-funded
World Class Performance Programme. Most important name for this year’s
programme is sprint prodigy Jodie Williams. It is the second year in succession
Williams, the reigning world junior 100m champion, has chosen to avoid
contractual control by UK Athletics to pursue her own path and remains on the
‘Futures’ programme, which provides basic support for junior athletes. Other
athletes, such as former heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, sprinter Mark Lewis
Francis and high jumper Germaine Mason, will miss out on this year’s funding
opportunities according to The Independent. Mason is one of five British high
jumpers to miss out on funding, along with European bronze medallist Martyn
Bernard, Olympic finalist and UK
indoor champion Tom Parsons, world indoor finalist Samson Oni and Robbie
Grabarz. It is a stark contrast to the picture painted three years ago, when Great Britain
had three Olympic high jump finalists. UK Athletics head coach Charles van
Commenee after a highly successful IAAF World Championships in the summer has
revealed eight medals including one gold as the target at next year’s Olympic
Games. Van Commenee will be looking towards Mo Farah and Dai Greene who won the
5,000 meters
and 400 hurdles titles in Daegu to lead the challenge with support from the
other medallists in Korea,
Phillips Idowu (triple jump), Hannah England (800), Jessica Ennis (heptathlon)
and Andy Turner (110h). In the crucial final countdown to London 2012,
selection to Podium level funding is focused entirely on achieving medal
success and top eight finishes at next summer’s Games. Former Olympic
heptathlon bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton will continue with her plans to
compete in next year’s Olympic Games despite losing her funding from UK
Athletics.

KOMON PLANS HM DEBUT

BRUSSELS (BEL): Road world record holder Kenyan Leonard
Patrick Komon plans a half-marathon debut next spring. That was confirmed by
his management company Golazo. He is 10 and 15 km road world record
holder and has also a medal from World CC Championships 2008 and 2006 as a
junior. From his eighth road races (10 km, 10 miles, 15 km) he lost only once, this year in San Juan, Puerto-Rico.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR): UK media are informing that UK
Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has hinted Dwain Chambers could be
part of the sprint relay team at London 2012 if he is successful in overturning
his Olympic ban. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Chambers unsuccessfully
challenged the British Olympic Association bylaw that prohibits athletes guilty
of serious doping offences from competing at future Games. Although Chambers
has featured in British teams on an individual basis at other championships, he
has not been part of the relay team for the past two years because of the
desire to plan for London.

LONDON (GBR): Tottenham Hotspur’s judicial review
against the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United after
London 2012 will not be taking place as planned after the Premier League club
withdrew. The dropping of the judicial review follows last week’s decision that
the venue would remain in public ownership rather than be handed over to the
Championship club after London 2012. Tottenham confirmed to insidethegames that
they would no longer be going ahead with the legal action.

MOSCOW (RUS): Another test before 2013 World
Championships will be the Russian Walking Championships next June (10-11) held
on the same course as planned for the 2013 event in Luzhinki area. It will be
also final selection for Russian walkers for Olympic Games. As it is known
walking is not part of 2012 European Championships in Helsinki.

KAMPALA (UGA): Every Ugandan winning a gold medal at
next year’s Olympic Games will receive a bonus of 5000 dollar according to
Allafrica.com. Uganda Olympic Committee President Rogers Ddungu announced the
bonus at a function to reward medalists from the All Africa Games in Maputo.

LONDON (GBR): British up and coming discus thrower
Lawrence Okoye is speaking up to promote awareness of cardiac risk. Okoye, the
European U23 champion and fourth on this year’s world rankings, raised the
debate about the importance of screening young athletes at ‘grass roots’ level.
Lawrence has a strong affinity with issue after
16-year-old Oluwatobi Adeyemi, who was at Lawrence’s
former school, died suddenly earlier this year. The 20-year-old discus thrower
has already been tipped for gold at the London 2012 Olympics reports The
Croydon Guardian.

NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that Russian marathon record
holder Liliya Shobukhova will not be able to record a world 30 km road record 1:38:23
(split during her marathon win in Chicago) because the event organizers didn’t
have the proper mechanisms in place to verify the time and distance. That means
the record of Mizuki Noguchi 1:38:49 from Berlin 2005 will remain in the lists.

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Maggie Sanchez, the Rio 2016 chief
commercial and marketing director, has been fired from her position due to an
“incompatibility of philosophies” between her and the rest of the Organising
Committee. The American, a Harvard Business School
graduate, joined Rio 2016 last year to lead the largest sponsorship programme
ever launched in Brazil
according to Insidethegames.

TORONTO (CAN): Two-Time Canadian Olympian and 2007 world silver medalist
Gary Reed has launched the Reed Athletics Fund, a Track & Field Non-Profit
organization. That is to provide financial and other support to Canadian men
and women attempting to participate in the Olympics and World Championships.
Reed wants to help them during the developmental phase of their sporting
careers to assist them in reaching their full potential. Reed, now a real estate
advisor in Vancouver,
has committed to donate a portion of his income to the Fund and intends to
support it for the rest of his life.

LONDON (GBR): London 2012 has set a record already
with 193 countries signing up to approve the traditional United Nations call
for an Olympic truce has LOCOG chairman Sebastien Coe announced. Syria and Iran
were the last of the UN’s 193 member states to reply to British diplomats just
before Coe put the resolution to the UN General Assembly, where diplomats
applauded loudly after it passed by consensus.

INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USA Track & Field (USATF)
has engaged the services of Indianapolis-based Max Siegel Inc. (MSI) in a
broad, fully integrated service agreement that will unite USATF’s commercial
ventures. The move is part of a USATF plan that streamlines its internal staff
structure in marketing and communications. MSI will work with USATF staff to
integrate and vastly expand USATF’s commercial efforts in marketing,
sponsorship, publicity, membership and broadcasting.

COLORADO SPRINGS (USA):
The U.S. Olympic Committee has kicked off an online campaign featuring
decathlete Bryan Clay and other American athletes touring London before next year’s Summer Games. Over
the coming months, the USOC will air Internet videos featuring Bryan Clay as
well as the other selected athletes.

DOHA (QAT): Sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown has shown her support for Doha’s bid for the 2017
IAAF World Championships.””Doha
is ready to bring new energy to the World Championships and set new standards
for my sport. With their experience in hosting and their vision for a World
Championships like never before, I am sure that 2017 will be a fantastic
experience for all athletes, officials and especially the fans,” Campbell-Brown
was quoted The Peninsula Qatar.

GUADALAJARA (MEX): FIFA confirmed that urine samples taken
from 19 of the 24 teams that competed at last summers Under 17 World Cup in Mexico tested
positive for traces of the banned drug clebuterol,supposedly picked from
contaminated meat. It is a revelation that not only confirms Mexico’s public
health issue but is also a major set back in the fight against doping in sport.
With the Pan American Games currently underway in the Mexican city of Guadalajara are athletes
competing there face the same problem: exposure to the illegal steroid?

BERLIN (GER): At noon on Thursday, October 20, online
registration for the 39th BMW BERLIN MARATHON on September 30, 2012 will begin.
The limit is set at 40,000 participants. The registration fee for the first 10,000
registrants is 60 Euros. The next 15,000 registrations will have a 80 Euro fee,
and the remaining will have a 100 Euro fee. This year the participant limit was
reached by February.

ATHENS (GRE): Greek media are informing that end of last week unknown
persons entered the room of high jump world medalist Kyriacos Ioannou of Cyprus
in a hostel at Agios Kosmas. They stole money and personal items from the
jumper who was at that time at a training session. The above incident shows the
lack of protection that exists for the athletes staying at the premises of St.
Cosmas, where in recent months all seem to have been abandoned.

BEOGRAD (SRB): Serbian media are informing that former US top sprinter Marion Jones is
visiting the country earlier this week. She was in Nis
on Monday and Belgrade
on Tuesday and she will talk to young people, coaches and citizens about the
life lessons and the importance of making right decisions and overcome the
consequences of mistakes made??. Jones founded the non-governmental programme
“take a break” that guides young people before making important decisions in
life. More on that programme at marionjones.org website.

RESULTS

ISTANBUL (TUR, Oct 16): 15 km winners from Eurasia Istanbul Marathon were
Ethiopians Atsedu Tesfay 44:05 and Sosena Gezaw 50:45.

BIELLA (ITA, Oct 16): Kenyan Thomas Longosiwa who was
6th in Daegu 5000 m
won the 41st Giro Podistico di Pettinengo with 27:00 at 9.6 km. Second young
Ethiopian Fikadu Haftu 27:13 ahead of Miliyon Yehualashet 27:16 and Qatari former
world medalist James Kwalia 27:27. Women 4 km winner was Kenyan Margaret Wangari in
12:17.

WOLFGANGSEE (AUT, Oct 16): Kenyan Hosea Tuei won the 27 km road race “Around the
Wolfgang Sea” in 1:29:45. Nancy Koech was the best woman 1:46:25. New participation
record with more than 3500 runners.

GEITHUS (NOR, Oct 15): Top Norwegian runners won the Furumomila 10 km on the road. Urige Buta
with 29:34 and Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal in 33:56.